West Ham midfielder Mohamed Diame is hoping he can use his knowledge on Newcastle's key men to help the Hammers claim a scalp when the sides meet in the Barclays Premier League on Sunday.

Diame, 25, has impressed for West Ham since moving to Upton Park in the summer from Wigan as Sam Allardyce's side have defied the odds to sit ninth in the table.

Newcastle are one point and one place below the Hammers in the standings and Diame wants to utilise his knowledge of Senegal team-mates Demba Ba and Papiss Cisse to help towards a win.

"After the game against Wigan, I think we needed to have this reaction against Manchester City. We did it, so now we have to maintain that and take the three points from Newcastle," he told the club's official website.

"There are a lot of fans there and it is a big stadium. I have some friends there, both Senegalese and Frenchmen, so it's going to be a good game.

"I know Demba and Papiss very well and I also know that they have scored a lot of goals. We have to make sure we don't give them a lot of chances to score.

"They are different players, but they both work every day in front of the goal and are strikers who know how to score, so we have to try to restrict their chances."

Midfielder Diame has also spent time playing alongside Magpies' play-maker Hatem Ben Arfa.

"I was in Clairefontaine with him so I know he is a very good player," he said.

"He has had a lot of injuries, but he is a very good player so we have to be careful about him as well."

Diame pinpointed the performance against Manchester City in the goalless draw at Upton Park last weekend as a yard-stick for the challenge ahead on Tyneside.

"We are just going to go there and try to replicate the game we played against Manchester City," he said.

"These are the games I enjoy and I am sure it will be the same for Andy (Carroll) and Kevin Nolan as well. It is going to be a good game and we are going to enjoy it and hopefully get the three points."

If West Ham are to win at St James' Park on-loan striker Carroll may have to find his scoring boots for the visitors.

Former Newcastle favourite Carroll is on a season-long loan at Upton Park from parent club Liverpool but is yet to find the back of the net for West Ham.

Allardyce has admitted the situation will be worse if it is playing on Carroll's mind.

He said: "I don't think he is worried. I hope he's not because the more he is, the less likely he is to get that goal that he's looking for. I'm certainly not overly concerned.

"We'd all like him to get off the mark but, as every player will tell you, our main aim is to achieve results. If you're getting results and your main striker is scoring goals, then that's fantastic, but if they're not then as long as you're getting the results then that is the most important thing."

Much has been made of Allardyce making another return to Newcastle, a club which sacked him as manager almost five years ago.

But the 58-year-old is not setting off for a revenge mission and has accepted the reasons behind Mike Ashley's decision to remove him as manager in January 2008.

"It's a piece of history in my career that didn't quite work out as well as I'd liked it to," he said.

"For me, it wasn't me getting bad results at Newcastle - it was a change of ownership and a decision made at the time that they wanted their own man in. I accepted that at the time and since that time has drifted by, I have no animosity towards Newcastle United at all."